Reading Journal

[Wiley]

Yes, definitely.

[Torontonian]

I very much dislike anything that even hints at deliberate obfuscation. It is so, so easy to write is a complicated and confusing way that sounds erudite to the outsider. It is much harder to think and write clearly.

You're probably not a Hegel fan then?

Philosophy seems to go in cycles here, swinging between looser and tighter styles. We get fed up with one and abandon ourselves to the other. The enlightenment thinkers charged the scholastics with barbarism for their dry, rigorous logicism. But we're back at it again, after a few centuries of more poetic-romantic philosophising. The renewed interest in medieval philosophy today is indicative of our return to a more analytical method, I think.

[Torontonian]

Some new readings . . .

• Ross King, Defiant Spirits: The Modernist Revolution of the Group of Seven, (Douglas & McIntyre, 2011). First-time read. A newly-released history of the Group of Seven and Tom Thomson – groundbreaking ‘Canadian’ landscape painters. Quite good so far.
  
• Friedrich Nietzsche, Human, All Too Human, (Cambridge, 1996). Re-read. An early collection of aphorisms on various themes. Nietzsche would definitely make my ‘top-ten’ list for writers. I return to him perennially.
  
• Robert Burton, The Philosophaster, (MRTS, 1993). First-time read. Burton is rightly remembered for his mammoth Anatomy of Melancholy. This five-act play, on the other hand, is rightly forgotten. Mediocre at best.
  
• Étienne Gilson, The Arts of the Beautiful, (Dalkey, 2010). First-time read. Gilson was a real savant and a fine historian to boot. Several of his works on medieval philosophy adorn my shelves, but his philosophy of art is new territory. Looking forward to it.
  
• Old-English literature generally (first-time). For instance, several translations of Beowulf (Heaney [2000], Rebsamen [1991], Kennedy [1940]), and a selection of Anglo-Saxon verse. The alliterative style is very becoming. Already I prefer these northern myths and legends to the classical that I’m far more familiar with.
  

Now, what has everyone else been reading?

[Torontonian]

I'm very interested in similar - myths & legends. Would love to find out more about what you've been reading.

At the moment, I'm re-reading a collection of HG Wells novels. "War of the Worlds" is my current read. Just finished "In the days of the Comet", quite enjoyed it.

On another level, I love fantasy. Been reading some Robin Hobb of late.

It’s nice to find another myth-lover, Bster. The Greek and Roman myths are the only that I’ve studied in-depth, from Hesiod and Homer to Virgil and Ovid. For me at any rate, much of the charm of the classics stems from their almost childlike naivety and optimism. We are inclined to wink at rather than chide their deficiencies. ‘Northern’ literature, on the other hand, has a certain dignity – if that’s right word – which the classics lack. On the whole, I find it easier to appropriate too. It has really struck a chord with me. Right now, I’m starting on the poetic and prose ‘Eddas,’ the chief sources for Norse mythology. What sort of myths do you gravitate to?

Regarding science fiction and fantasy, I enjoy a little of both now and again, though I’m not at all well-versed or up-to-date. J.R.R. Tolkien I quite like. Prof. Tolkien drew the bulk of his inspiration, as you probably know, from the Scandinavian myths we’ve been discussing, and called his writing mythopoeia or ‘myth-making.’ The recently-published Children of Húrin I found superb.

As for H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds and The Invisible Man were fun, but I found The Island of Dr. Moreau repulsive – it literally made me a bit nauseous – and I abandoned it midway. Haven't read In the Days of the Comet but it sounds fun too.